Given the large footprint of the public sector in modern capitalist economies, many businesses are recipients of public money. But how are recipient firms impacted when they are weaned off public money? Drawing on unique data from Slovenia, we assemble a firm-level panel linking comprehensive records on public-sector cash transactions to businesses with detailed annual information on more than 72,000 firms observed between 2015 and 2019. To address endogeneity, we combine matching with difference-in-differences estimation. Weaning-off on average fundamentally disrupts a firm's production and organization, causing a marked decline in output, total assets, and input use, as well as a decrease in productivity and export proclivity. Several effects of weaning-off are contingent on firm age. Younger firms undergo comparatively stronger effects on production operations, but, interestingly, only older firms experience negative effects on productivity and liquidity. Estimated aggregate value-added losses incurred by treated firms fall short of the total amount of public money disbursed to those firms. Thus, from a normative standpoint, diminished transactional involvement of the public sector with firms could potentially generate net social gains. Our analysis offers a new perspective on the repercussions of public sector's involvement in the economy.

中文翻译：

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断绝公共资金：停止接收公共资金对公司结果的影响

鉴于现代资本主义经济中公共部门的足迹很大，许多企业都是公共资金的接受者。但是，当受援公司停止使用公共资金时，它们会受到怎样的影响？利用来自斯洛文尼亚的独特数据，我们组建了一个公司层面的小组，将公共部门现金交易的综合记录与企业联系起来，并提供 2015 年至 2019 年间观察到的 72,000 多家公司的详细年度信息。为了解决内生性问题，我们将匹配与差异相结合-差异估计。平均而言，断奶从根本上扰乱了公司的生产和组织，导致产出、总资产和投入使用显着下降，以及生产率和出口倾向的下降。断奶的几个影响取决于公司年龄。较年轻的公司对生产经营的影响相对较大，但有趣的是，只有较老的公司才会对生产率和流动性产生负面影响。受处理公司遭受的估计总增值损失低于支付给这些公司的公共资金总额。因此，从规范的角度来看，减少公共部门与企业的交易参与可能会产生净社会收益。我们的分析为公共部门参与经济的影响提供了新的视角。从规范的角度来看，减少公共部门与公司的交易参与可能会产生净社会收益。我们的分析为公共部门参与经济的影响提供了新的视角。从规范的角度来看，减少公共部门与公司的交易参与可能会产生净社会收益。我们的分析为公共部门参与经济的影响提供了新的视角。